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SPSP Supports Graduate Students

Thursday, November 16, 2017

SPSP signed a letter expressing that we are “extremely concerned with provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (H.R. 1) that will increase the financial burden for graduate students by repealing existing provisions in tax law.” Some of the text of the letter, and complete copy, are below.

U.S. scientific and technological ingenuity has helped to make our nation one of the most innovative in the world and generated tremendous economic benefit to our country. This inventive spirit starts with people and ideas – and it is our higher-education system that has fostered the development of inventors, entrepreneurs, Nobel Laureates, and business leaders.

Repealing the very provisions that allow graduate students to continue to study in critical STEM fields means that we will be shutting the door on new opportunities for discovery, exploration and innovation.

For these reasons, we urge you to preserve the critical graduate student tax benefit provisions, especially section 117(d), 117(d)(5), and 127.